


learn to be still

by comebacknow



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, but like different, general vibes???, no real plot, the safe haven, tmrss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21824383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comebacknow/pseuds/comebacknow
Summary: the safe haven has expanded into a new sort of community and everyone has finally formed a daily routine that moves them through the weeks, months and years.sometimes that routine works.other times, it doesn't.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18
Collections: Maze Runner Secret Santa 2019





	learn to be still

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sulfuric](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sulfuric/gifts).



> A submission for The Maze Runner Secret Santa 2019.
> 
> My requests were very vague, to say the least. So I did what I could with them. I hope you like what's come. Went with a vibe, less of a plot. 
> 
> Titled after Learn To Be Still by The Eagles. Go have a listen.

There are moments. Mundane little things that strike so vividly. A howling alarm from two blocks over, the quiet stillness between three and four a.m., the metallic taste from sipping carbonated brew from a tin cup. Moments that grip you and don’t let go and you don’t know why. It’s moments like these that are looked upon with a quirked brow before shoving them to the back of the shelf. But it’s also moments like these that bring us to the bigger ones. Those life-changing times when you think  _ how did I get here? _ That’s when those little moments let their eyes light up, mouth turned in a smile. It’s a silent kind of victory, and it’s in that silence that our lives truly begin.

It’s grown quiet.

It’s not like Thomas didn’t expect it on some level; the excitement and eagerness – the relief – would eventually fade to a calmer sort of regularity. It would become a life for them here. That’s what the Safe Haven was meant for. To find their new normal, to get away, to live.

Somehow, he was still waiting for that to happen. 

The food is decent, not that he has much to compare it to, but he doesn’t complain. He chews it down and forces it through a tight swallow and it’s onto the next bite. Onto the next project. Onto the next day.

It’s just after breakfast that Thomas is stirred from his reverie inside of his cabin by the door banging open to reveal Gally staring back at him.

Thomas blinks at him. “What the fuck?”

“Get up. It’s Frypan.

“What’s Frypan?”

“Forgotten him already too? Let’s go.”

“Gally, what happened?”

Gally drops an audible sigh as he turns back to Thomas. He stares at him for a moment before he speaks. “If you’d get off your ass and follow me you’d find out, wouldn’t you?”

Thomas fights back the roll of his eyes and pushes off the bed.

The Haven goes on around them as they walk down the dirt road. He remembers when they first got here. The sand, the woods, the small tents and huts. But somewhere along the way the community grew to a society. It’s a sort of New Haven now

Gally leads him down the road where trees used to stand tall. They still stand, just chopped and stacked on top of one another to form cabins that sit side by side and make up their small, growing town. 

Thomas blinked, and the world changed again.

He follows Gally as he turns toward the cabin with the door propped open. Minho and Frypan had taken over this one. Thomas doesn’t dwell on the memory of that decision. He walks in to see about seven others surrounding Frypan, who’s now sitting on the floor with a cup of water in his hands breathing heavily. Thomas’ eyes find Minho’s for a brief second before they’re back on Frypan. “What happened?” he asks.

Julian turns from where he’s crouched and looks over his shoulder at Thomas. “We were on our way to the farm but he just collapsed. I think it’s the Shutters again.”

Thomas feels his jaw clench and he looks back at Frypan. “Are you alright?”

“No he’s not fuckin’ alright,” Gally says from behind Thomas. “Do you see him?”

“Gally,” Thomas waves a hand at him.

“Let’s go,” Kayla says. “Let’s get him up to Med. Aris, grab his legs? We’ll lift on three?”

Thomas watches as Kayla and Aris shift around Frypan. He scans the room quickly before he moves to one of the beds to pull the thin mattress off. “Gally, give me a hand.”

Gally quirks a brow at him.

“They can put him on here to bring him over,” Thomas explains quickly. “Come on.” He watches Gally’s eyes shift to the other corner of the room, but Thomas doesn’t follow his gaze. After some seemingly quiet conversation, Gally moves forward to help Thomas.

A moment later, Frypan is on the mattress.

“Minho,” Gally nods at him. “You and me, okay?"

Thomas pauses for a moment before he steps back and lets go of the mattress for Minho to take over and help Gally carry him out to the wagon.

When they’ve gone from the cabin, Thomas turns to Julian. “Did he say anything?”

“Since he woke up?” Julian asks, brushing his hands on his pants. “No, not yet. I’ll keep an eye on him over there.”

“Will you let me know if he does?”

Julian looks up at Thomas and considers him for a moment. “Uh, sure, yeah. Sorry, what was your name again?”

“It’s – it’s Thomas.”

“Thomas,” Julian nods. “Okay, I’ll send someone for you. You two are close?”

“Yeah,” Thomas starts. “Yeah, we were.”

A week later, Frypan is back on his feet. No one really went out of their way to tell Thomas, but he heard through this person who heard from that person who saw Frypan at work two days ago. 

So Thomas nodded, thanked them for the update, and went back to fussing about the wiring of a lamp.

The second time Gally bangs on the door to his cabin, Thomas has to resist the urge to switch with someone and not tell him where he is, but he pushes it aside and yanks the door open. “What?"

“Cheerful,” Gally notes. He pushes past Thomas and lets himself into the cabin.

“Gally, I’m not in the mood.”

“Shut up.” He puts a four-set of filled mason jars on the table and falls to the torn couch.

Thomas still stands at the open door when he turns back to him.

They hold each other’s gaze for a minute before Gally sits up and grabs a mason jar. He twists the cap open and takes a long sip of amber liquid.

Thomas blinks at him and waits.

Gally finally lowers the mason jar and exhales a long breath.

Thomas blinks at him. “Okay, well, I need to get ready to leave for work soon. So, if there’s a point to this visit, can we get to it?”

Gally hiccups a short breath and then exhales again.

Thomas drops his head to lean on the edge of the door.

“Fuck work.”

Thomas sighs and slowly closes the door. He turns back to him. “What’s this now?”

“It’s bullshit.”

Thomas leans back against the door and stares across the room at Gally. 

“Where has it gotten us? To some fucked up version of pretending to live?"

“Some people find a kind of solace in it, I think.”

“Fuck out of here. Do you?”

Thomas blinks at him.

“Yeah,” Gally laughs and lifts the mason jar to his lips. “Didn’t think so.” He takes another sip and taps a jar with his free hand and snaps his fingers.

Thomas turns his head to look out through the small window of his cabin toward the dusted road. Across on the front step of his own cabin, Aris is whittling away at something, but other than him there’s no movement. “Fuck it,” he sighs and pushes off the door.

“There we go,” Gally says and holds a jar up to him.

The sun is down when there’s yet another banging at his door and as Thomas blearily blinks himself awake he decides that, yeah, he’s just gonna rip it down.

He steps over where Gally is curled on a blanket on the rug and runs a hand through his hair before he pulls the door open. He narrows one eye in confusion and exhaustion. “Aris?”

“You weren’t at work.”

Thomas stares at him. “I’m aware.”

“Brenda saw me. She was asking why.”

“Okay.”

Aris shuffles a bit. “Just thought you’d want the heads up.”

“Okay."

Aris’ gaze shifts behind Thomas.

“Anything else?” Thomas asks.

“Is he okay?”

Thomas turns to look over his shoulder at Gally. He shrugs. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“What’d you guys do?”

Thomas turns back to him and eyes him for a moment. “Is there anything else?”

“Oh. No.”

“Okay. Goodnight then.”

Aris nods once and steps back from the doorway before turning and walking off toward his own cabin.

“What happened to you?” Brenda asks, leaning her hip on his work table.

“That’s a loaded question.”

“Yesterday, I mean.”

Thomas shrugs, furrowing his brow at the copper insert between his fingers. He looks back down at the glass bulb. “I, uh, was otherwise occupied.”

“Let me guess,” Brenda sighs. “Good ole Gally?”

Thomas finally looks up at her. “Oh, you wanna talk about making bad decisions with Gally? Is that where you wanna take this conversation?”

She flashes her middle finger to him before she goes back to folding her arms. “We need these lamps done. More cabins are being built every day and half of them don’t have light.”

“Tell them to open the curtains,” Thomas mumbles back to the glass bulb. “Vitamin C or whatever.”

“It’s Vitamin D.”

“And that’ll be why I don’t work at the Med.”

“Just get your shit done today. And yesterday’s if you can focus long enough.”

Thomas salutes her with barely a glance. She’s only gone two steps when he speaks up again, gaze set on the bulb but focus on where she moves behind him. “How’s Minho?”

There’s a silent beat or two before she responds. “He’s good, Thomas. He’s really good.”

Thomas stares at his reflection in the glass bulb and catches the feathered muscle in his jaw.

He hears the crash when he’s about six cabins from his own. His head snaps up in the general direction, but there’s no movement on the road to give him any clue as to what happened or where. A door opens a few more cabins down and he sees Sonya peer out. When her gaze lands on him he offers a small shrug and then starts walking forward toward her. 

She steps out from her doorway and pulls her sweater tighter around her shoulders. “Any idea what happened?”

Thomas shakes his head. “No. I don’t even know which cabin it came from.”

Another door creaks as it opens and the two of them look across the road to where Kayla comes outside. “Everyone okay?”

Thomas shrugs. “We’re not sure what happened.”

“Want us to do a route?” Harriet calls over to Kayla as she appears behind Sonya.

Kayla looks down the road and then shakes her head. “I haven’t heard anything else. If it happens again we’ll do one, but everything seems alright. Someone might’ve just dropped something.”

Thomas’ nerves stand on edge and he turns back to Harriet to see the same feeling in her eyes. “I’ll meet you in ten,” Thomas says quietly.

Harriet nods just slightly before she offers a wave to Kayla.

“It had to be one of these three, right?” Harriet asks.

They’re standing in front of three cabins now in the general vicinity of the sound.

“I think so."

“It’s late,” she reminds him needlessly. “People will be sleeping.”

Thomas shrugs and starts walking toward the first cabin. “Doesn’t keep people from banging on my door.”

He issues three knocks to the first cabin.

They wait in the silence for about a full minute before Jack’s voice calls through the door. “Coming, coming.” The door is pulled open and Jack stands with his hair in disarray and one of his eyes screwed shut. “What?”

“Did something happen in here earlier?”

“What?”

“There was a crash. Everything alright?”

“What? Yeah,” he coughs to clear the sleep from his throat. “I was at work all day, I wasn’t even home.”

Thomas glances at Harriet and then nods to Jack. “Alright. Thanks.”

Jack flips them off and disappears back inside.

“Pleasant,” Harriet murmurs.

“Yeah, well, Jack’s always been a dick.” Thomas leads them over to the other house.

“Didn’t you sleep with him?”

Thomas shoots her a look over his shoulder before he turns back to the next cabin. He clenches his jaw before he responds. “Once.”

Harriet snorts behind him.

Thomas bangs on the next door. 

They wait in the silence but there’s no answer. He issues three more bangs.

Harriet squints through the window but shakes her head. “Curtains are in the way.”

Thomas scans the house. “You think she’s just not home?”

“Probably not. She spends all day with Vince usually.”

A drop of guilt slithers through Thomas. He clears his throat as he pushes at the door to see if they’d be able to just break in. “Have you, uh, been to see him?”

“Have you?”

Thomas drops his hand and looks back over at her. 

Harriet shrugs. “What difference is us being there gonna make? He’d just tell us to get to work anyway.”

“He’s dying, Harriet.”

“Don’t try to guilt me for saying the truth.”

Thomas pulls his gaze back to eye the door. “Whatever. She’s probably over there."

“Let’s go.”

Thomas follows Harriet from Marie’s cabin and wanders to the next one. Once again, he issues three bangs on the door. 

“If he answers, we should swing by Vince’s. Just make sure Marie’s over there.”

“Sure,” Thomas says and then bangs on the door again. On the third bang, the door pulls back from his fist.

“What?”

“Hey did anythi-“ Thomas pauses as he takes in the bruise on the side of Aris’ face. “Jesus.”

“What the fuck happened to you?” Harriet asks, pushing Thomas aside.

Aris pulls his face back from her reaching hand. “Accident at work.”

“Don’t you work at the fuckin’ textiles bin?” Thomas lowers an eyebrow.

Aris shifts his gaze to him. “The machines are heavy.”

“The machines are bolted to the floor,” Thomas reminds him.

“What happened?” Harriet asks again.

“If you’re here about the crash earlier, it wasn’t me,” Aris says. “I heard it too. Sounded like it was in the woods, but I didn’t see anything.”

“The woods?” Thomas repeats.

Aris needlessly points over his shoulder with his thumb.

“Alright, as long as you’re alright,” Harriet sighs. 

“Relative,” Thomas snorts.

Harriet shoots him a glare.

“Okay, well, if that’s all…” Aris says.

“Night, Ar,” Harriet nods. “Take it easy at work.”

Aris nods and the door is closed before they even turn from his cabin.

“Do you still wanna check on Marie?” Thomas sighs.

“Yeah, I’m gonna head over to Vince’s.”

“Do you care if I pass?” 

Harriet looks up at him. “You’re not gonna see him?”

“I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Wanna catch up on it before tomorrow’s shift.”

Harriet shakes her head. “Whatever. I’ll tell him you said hi.”

  
  
  
  


There’s a very dull sort of glow breaking through the window when Thomas hears another crash that tears him from sleep. 

He debates the merits of getting up to check on the road or just going back to sleep. When his curiosity starts to wake up, he decides the latter isn’t quite an option anymore and finally pushes himself up from the bed. 

He pulls a sweater over himself and steps into his boots and is out on the porch by the time his brain has fully woken up. He blearily blinks over in the direction of Marie’s house, but there doesn’t seem to be any movement. He looks down the road for anyone else who might’ve heard it, but is met with the same lack of movement. 

He sighs and tucks his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt and then jogs off his front step and across the road over to Marie’s. He squints through the dark window only seeing his reflection squinting back at him. He raises a fist to knock on the door but then pauses. He hops down from the step and wanders to the back of the cabin. There’s not much back there except overgrown weeds poking through rocks. There’s a wagon of junk in the corner and an overturned chair. He scratches at his eye and is just about to turn when the back door opens and he freezes. 

Aris shuffles from the house with some metal contraption in his arms and makes his way down toward the wagon. 

Thomas tilts his head a bit to try to see what he’s doing, but doesn’t get much of an answer when Aris simple drops the heavy contraption on top of the junk in the wagon. 

Aris’ shoulders drop on an exhale and he swipes his wrist against his forehead.

“What are you d-?” Thomas cuts his words off when Aris flinches and collides with the wagon, knocking an assortment of junk from it. 

“What the fuck?” Aris breathes.

“Sorry,” Thomas holds back a laugh. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t?” Aris asks. “Because sneaking up on someone without a sound is usually enough to do that.”

Thomas blinks at him. “What are you doing?”

Aris seems to come back down from his shock and looks down at the array of junk on the floor. He slowly starts picking it up and putting it back in the wagon. “Cleaning.”

“Cleaning,” Thomas repeats. He takes a slow step forward and then another. “Marie asked you to clean her house?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“If you hadn’t hesitated there, I might have actually believed you.”

Aris glances back to Thomas but doesn’t say anything, he just stuffs the last piece of metal junk into the wagon and pauses to make sure nothing else is going to fall out.

“So what are you actually doing?” Thomas asks.

“Nothing.”

“Listen,” Thomas sighs, “I’m really tired, and you look like you’re busy, so the sooner you answer me honestly, the sooner I can go back to sleep and you can continue whatever it is you’re doing.”

“What does it matter to you, anyway?” Aris shrugs.

Thomas stares at him. “You know what, you’re right.” He holds up a hand. “I don’t care. Just be easy with the crashes if you don’t want people asking questions. Especially in the middle of the night.”

Aris looks up at the sky. “It’s dawn.”

Thomas drops his hand. 

Aris looks back at Thomas.

Thomas stares at him. “Okay.” He turns and leaves Aris and his wagon of junk behind him as he makes his way back to his cabin.

  
  
  
  


“You look like death.”

“Thanks, Brenda, you also look lovely.” Thomas smiles up at her.

“Did you even sleep?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Did you finish yesterday’s lamps?”

Thomas drops his head to his worktable. “I finished one of them.”

“So that’s a no.”

He lifts his head. “I just said I finished one of them. So it’s technically a  _ sort of _ .”

Brenda sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “Listen, we’re already getting backed up. Johnny went through a Shutter so he’s out for a few days. I need everyone to pick up the slack which means you need to actually catch up on your shit first.”

Thomas cricks his neck to the side. “Yeah, I’ll get on it.”

“I mean it, Thomas.”

“I said I’ll do it.”

Brenda quirks an eyebrow at him. 

  
  
  
  


It’s four nights later that Thomas’ curiosity gets the better of him again. 

He finds himself in Marie’s backyard sitting in the chair he’d turned right side up when Aris hobbles out of the back of the house again, bringing junk to a now empty wagon. 

Aris’ eyes find him and he pauses.

“Don’t let me stop you,” Thomas shrugs. 

Aris blinks at him and then silently continues filling the wagon.

Thomas waits for an hour, which includes about four of Aris’ trips in and out of the house, before he finally stands and stretches. “Well, this has been riveting. Same time tomorrow?”

Aris eyes him but doesn’t say anything.

  
  
  


A couple hours later, Thomas is hauling a large wagon of lamps down the road from his work cabin. He sees Brenda and her clipboard at the edge of the new sector and waits behind that guy whose name he can never remember but always says hi to him. 

Once she’s checked him off, Thomas steps up.

Brenda eyes the wagon and then Thomas. “I’ll admit: it’s more than I expected.”

“You think so low of me,” he smiles. “Did Minho put you up to that?”

She gives him a look and then starts sifting through the wagon. “What is this, eleven?”

“Sixteen.”

She looks up at him with a furrowed brow.

He shrugs. “Two of them might not actually light up, to be fair.”

She closes her eyes briefly and then shakes her head. “Fine. Sixteen. Just tell Gally they were working fine at the Bin.”

“Aw, you’re gonna let me lie?”

“To Gally. Because I don’t give a shit about him.”

“Is it weird working with him and Minho at the same time?” Thomas grins and looks up to the Construction Bin. “God, to be a fly on this decrepit wooden wall.”

“You’re good, Thomas,” Brenda insists. “You can go through now.”

Thomas snorts and drags the wagon behind him.

He winds through other Mechs dragging their lamps and whatever else Brenda had them working on. He finds Gally snapping at some kid over a broken wire in some clock. 

“How the fuck are people supposed to get to work on time if their clock ticks backwards? Is that how you watch the clock in your own cabin? Is that why all your shit is messed up? Only at work for an hour a day?”

“Weren’t you just talking about how work is a waste of time?” Thomas nods at him.

Gally looks over at him. “Oh this looks promising.” He tosses the clock back into the wagon and waves the boy through. 

“Why do you give them a hard time if you don’t actually care?” Thomas laughs and drags the wagon over.

“Because at least if it looks like I do while I’m here, Minho won’t give me shit for showing up late or off my ass. Speaking of which,” he nods at Thomas and tosses his clipboard down. “Good for a break?”

Thomas turns to Brenda, but she’s busy sifting through someone else’s wagon. “Fuck it.”

  
  
  


Gally’s brew has changed over the years. It’s still got the same effect, but it goes down a lot smoother now that they’ve had time and materials to experiment with. Thomas perches himself up on the wooden beam of a fence and passes the jar back to Gally who leans next to him. He watches him for a moment before he speaks. “Hey, what would someone need a bunch of scrap metal for?”

Gally swallows a sip and squints up at him. “Aren’t you the mech?”

“Hardly.”

Gally tilts his head to agree and then takes another sip. “What kind of scrap metal?”

Thomas takes the offered jar and shrugs. “I don’t know like gears and stuff.”

“What kind of gears?”

“I don’t fuckin’ know. Gears.”

Gally rolls his eyes. “Uh, I don’t know. Something that needs to be run, obviously. Are there wires involved or like a gas tank?”

Thomas frowns. “I don’t know.”

“Well, depends if you’re looking at electric or gas powered then.”

“But what would someone be building with that stuff?”

“I don’t know, it could be anything that runs. Take your pick.”

“Gally!”

The two of them turn their heads to where Minho is standing in the doorway. 

“Shit,” Gally murmurs and pushes off the fence. “Catch you later.”

Thomas nods at him and then look back to meet Minho’s gaze.

Minho eyes him silently for a minute until Gally reaches him and then he shifts his gaze away and says something to Gally with a swift punch to his arm before they disappear back into the Bin.

  
  
  


“So what are you building?” Thomas asks, peering into the wagon.

“Who says I’m building anything?” Aris asks, tossing a tin cup into the wagon.

Thomas picks the cup up and flips it over in his hands. “I mean, why else would you be collecting all this junk?”

Aris plucks the cup from his hands and puts it back in the wagon. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Definitely not worried,” Thomas laughs. “Just curious, really. And if you tell me, I can help you. I’m a mech, afterall.”

Aris glances at him over his shoulder before he disappears back into Marie’s house.

Thomas sifts through the wagon and finds a small cracked plastic bin. 

“Don’t you just build lamps?” Aris asks when he reemerges with a coiled wire.

“Something like that. Hey, what’s this for?” he holds up the plastic.

Aris drops the wire into the wagon and then puts his hands on his hips, staring at Thomas.

Thomas holds his gaze for a minute before he puts the plastic back into the wagon. “Fine. I don’t really care, I’m just curious.”

Aris blinks at him. “Sun’s up.”

Thomas looks around them, confused. “Yeah, I - I can see that.” 

“You’re usually gone by now.”

Thomas shrugs. “Curiosity got the better of me.”

Aris blinks at him. “Okay, well. I’m done.”

Thomas looks at the wagon. “Where do you put it all? Is your cabin just like, filled with shit?”

“No.”

“So where do you put it all?”

Aris stares at him.

Thomas shifts under his gaze. “Whatever. Listen Gally’s coming by later with some brew if you wanna join us.”

Aris stares at him.

“Or not. Whatever.” Thomas steps around the wagon and starts on his way to leave.

“You’re inviting me over?” Aris asks.

Thomas looks back at him and shrugs. “I don’t know. You’re one of like three people I talk to.”

“We talk,” Aris says, almost like a question.

“I mean, mostly I talk and you just stare at me like I have eight heads, but yeah.”

Aris blinks at him.

“Yeah, kinda like that,” Thomas nods. “Anyway, I figure I might as well try to keep the connections I have so, do with that what you will.” He turns and continues to leave.

“What time?”

Thomas turns back to him. “Uhhh,” he exhales. “No idea? Probably around noon? Off day so might as well start early.”

Aris’ mouth twitches. “Can I come at sundown?”

Thomas lowers a brow. “Um, I guess. Big plans on collecting more junk for the next eight hours?”

Aris looks at him confused. “Sundown is in twelve hours.”

Thomas raises his brows to his hairline. “Alright.”

  
  
  
  
  


Aris doesn’t show up that night, and Thomas isn’t very surprised when it comes down to it. What is surprising is the disappointment that has settled in his chest when he’s lying on his couch staring at the ceiling listening to Gally’s snores from the blanket on the floor. 

  
  
  
  


Thomas quietly steps over Gally at dawn and makes his way across the road in the quiet air. He steps over a broken wooden beam and through the weeds until he’s in the backyard. 

The wagon waits next to him, empty. 

Thomas sits down in his chair and pulls the collar of his sweater up to his neck as he yawns. And he waits with the wagon.

When he wakes up with a terrible ache in his neck, the sun is beaming down on him and the empty wagon. He paws at his eyes and blinks around him. He turns in his seat to look in the direction of Aris’ cabin, but no sounds come from it.

  
  
  


The next time it happens, Thomas lets his confusion wander, but doesn’t dwell too much on it. The third time, he lets himself into Marie’s cabin through the back door only to find it scraped out. The furniture that matters remains. The couch, the bed, a table. But Thomas starts to notice the small things that have gone missing. A clock, part of the cooker, the chord of the cooler, the copper wires from the lamps. 

  
  


He’s back at work staring at the mechanism of one of his lamps when Brenda comes up to him. “Minho went through a Shutter last night.”

Thomas’ fingers freeze over the parts in his hands. “Is he okay?” he finally chokes out. 

“He’s in the Med Bin.”

Thomas breathes and flips the pieces in his hands. 

“You should go see him.”

“Why?”

“He’s your friend, Thomas.”

“Was,” he corrects her. “Was my friend.”

Brenda sighs behind him. “You two need to work this out.”

Thomas shakes his head. “Nothing to work out, Bren. Shit just happens.”

  
  
  


That night Thomas bangs on Aris’ door. He doesn’t expect an answer, so when he doesn’t get one he just crosses back over to his own cabin. 

  
  
  


“Have you seen Aris around?” he asks Gally a week later. 

“Who?”

Thomas looks at him. “Aris.”

Gally blinks at him. 

“Nevermind,” Thomas sighs and takes another sip of brew. 

“Have you been to see Minho?”

“No.”

Gally snorts.

Thomas eyes him. 

“Listen, man. I don’t care. Brenda keeps asking me when you’re gonna visit him.”

“Why does she care?”

Gally shrugs. “Well, there’s, y’know. Everything between the two of them.”

“Has nothing to do with me.”

“Less to do with me,” Gally laughs and takes the mason jar. 

“Something makes me doubt that.”

Gally flips him off. “Are you gonna go?”

“To see him?”

Gally nods and sips the drink. 

Thomas looks out across the road in front of Gally’s cabin. Minho’s cabin is just a bit to the left. “No,” Thomas shakes his head. 

  
  
  


Two days later, Thomas is banging on Aris’ door repeatedly. 

“Thomas?” Harriet’s voice pulls him back. 

He turns to her with a furrowed brow. 

She eyes Aris’ door and then Thomas. “Is everything okay?”

“Have you seen him?”

Harriet shakes her head. 

“Well where the hell has he gone? He’s been missing for, like, three weeks.”

Harriet shrugs and shakes her head again at a loss. “I - I’m not sure, Thomas. He just sort of disappeared one night.”

“And no one’s gone to look for him?”

Harriet shrugs. “People leave, Thomas.” 

Thomas turns back and stares at Aris’ door. 

  
  
  


The next day, he shows up with a hammer and breaks through the window. 

The only clue found is a piece of paper that is addressed to him. 

  
  


_ Thomas, _

_ Since you’re the only one who will have enough curiosity to break into my house, I assume you’re the only one who will ever read this.  _

_ In that case, I’m at the stone. _

  
  
  


Thomas rereads the note a few times before he finally takes off. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


He hasn’t been here in at least a year. Maybe more. Probably more. 

The sand is coarse and the tree line has cut back a bit. Weeds grow sporadically through the rocks and weathered jetty. There’s a broken abandoned hull of a boat off to the side, but next to it is a newer one, bobbing on the light waves of the water. Just in front of that is a cracked gray stone carved up and covered on one side with moss. It cuts into Thomas’ memories. 

In front of that, in the sand, sits Aris. 

Thomas wanders down the sand quietly and stops just short of him, unsure if he’ll be disturbing him if he speaks. 

Aris does it for him. “I’ll admit: you took a lot longer than I thought.”

Thomas looks down to his boots in the sand and then up to Aris’ back. “You knew I’d come?”

Aris shrugs. “You’re too curious. It was always your downfall.”

Thomas looks around them and then steps up next to Aris. “What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Thomas watches him until Aris finally squints up at him. 

“Leaving.”

“You’re leaving?” Thomas asks. 

Aris nods. 

Thomas eyes the sand and then sits next to him. “Where are you going?”

Aris shrugs. “Depends where I can get to in that contraption.”

Thomas looks past the stone to the bobbing boat. “That’s what you’ve been building?”

“Well, it was already built. Really I just fixed up the engine. Gassed it. Made it run.”

“It’s safe?”

Aris shrugs. 

Thomas snorts. “So, you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know how far you’ll get, and the boat you’re leaving in will probably sink.”

Aris’ mouth curls up. “Yep.”

Thomas laughs and shakes his head.

“You wanna come with me?”

Thomas eyes him. “Absolutely not.”

Aris shrugs and looks back at the stone. “Worth a shot.”

Thomas watches him for a minute. 

“Heard Minho had a Shutter. Did you visit him?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Thomas sighs. “We haven’t spoken in months.”

“He blames you for Newt?”

Thomas stills. 

Aris shrugs. “Fuck him then. What do you have here? That kid you slept with twice? The-“

“-once-“

“-job you - no, twice.”

Thomas eyes him. 

“I live next door to him.”

Thomas snorts. 

Aris shrugs. “A job you hate, people you hate. What? Are you gonna stick around to drink Gally’s brew all day until you wither away?”

“Better than drowning.”

“Is it?”

Thomas stares at him. 

Aris swallows. “I’ve been drowning every day since we got here. I thought this was supposed to be a new start, you know? A breath of fresh air. We were supposed to be able to live.” He looks at Thomas. “Have you?”

Thomas shifts his gaze to the sand as he considers Aris’ words. 

“I lost Rachel. Harriet and Sonya barely talk to me much. It’s fine, they’re busy trying to form some sort of life here. I get it.” Aris shrugs. “You’re the only one who’s ever actually talked to me because you wanted to.”

Thomas looks back up to him. 

“So, what do I have here for me?”

“I don’t know if that’s an insult.”

Aris snorts. “Take it as you want.”

Thomas looks out to the boat. “How long are you going?”

Aris exhales next to him.

Thomas furrows his brow. “Will you ever come back?”

“No reason to,” Aris shrugs. “I’ll find another place. Stay there for a bit. And then keep going.”

“But what about a home? You know? Some place to actually settle and stay?”

“As long as I can remember, I’ve always been on the move.”

Thomas laughs down to his hands. “Yeah, I guess I can relate.”

“So why stop now?”

Thomas turns and looks back over his shoulder. He can’t see their town. They’re far enough away now but where they’ve built their society, but Thomas thinks about the routine that’s started forming. The wake up, the work, the drink with Gally, the falling asleep everywhere but his bed. He looks back at Aris. “What will we do for food?”

Aris shrugs. “Made it work here. And in the Scorch. Figure if we can do that, we can make it work wherever.”

Thomas looks up at the stone. 

“Do you really wanna stay here?” Aris asks him. 

Thomas’ gaze drops to the waves as they reach up along the shore and stretch their curved edges out to them. And then he watches as they drag themselves back out to the sea, back out to expanse ahead of him that will connect along to another shore on another island where two other people will sit on a shore and make a choice of where their lives will take them, and Thomas hopes they make a choice that will break the hold that’s wrapped around them. 


End file.
